2010 CENSUS

Zachary GoelmanDr. John Flateau of Medgar Evers College spoke about the redistricting in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

The lines of two New York Congressional districts are being redrawn and a fight is brewing over where the blade will fall. Many worry that the redrawing of district lines, which could break up numerous black voting blocks, will lead to a loss of political representation by and for African Americans.

Residents of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill got a rundown on the possible implications of redistricting by two community activists at Teen Challenge on Thursday, Oct. 20, at a community meeting organized by District Leader Olanike Alabi of the 57th Assembly District.

The latest census data shows the black population of Brooklyn shrinking and shifting to the south and east. In Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, the change is particularly pronounced: Black residents now make up 47 percent of the neighborhood, down from 65 percent in the year 2000, said Dr. John Flateau, a professor at the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evars College. Boroughwide, the 2010 census shows that Brooklyn’s black population fell six percent,

WNYC’s interactive map shows a concentration of same-sex couples in the tracts that include the Navy Yard and BAM.

Since the Marriage Equality Act passed last month, The Local has wondered how many same-sex couples live in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Last week the Census Bureau gave us some answers, in a new set of data for New York from the 2010 census count.

The new data set, called the Summary 1, breaks the total census count down into couples by gender, marital status and who has children. Here are a few snapshots of how Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s same-sex household numbers compare to the state, the city and the boroughs, based on the neighborhoods’ Census Tracts:

There are 465 same-sex households in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, 1.8 percent of the 25,522 households overall.

- That’s double New York State’s percentage of households that are same-sex couples — .09 percent.

- It’s almost double Brooklyn as a whole and New York City’s percentages, which both come in at about 1 percent.

- And it beats Manhattan’s 1.75 percent by a hair.

Below, we’ve put together some maps to illustrate the same-sex population.Read more…

Daniel Doyle completed his urban planning master’s degree from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service in 2008 and has since worked in Siemens’ Knowledge Management Department. He worked as a crew leader in the 2010 census.

Other city officials have jumped on the bandwagon too, claiming that census workers did not go back to enough to homes with unreturned questionnaires and that these addresses were prematurely written off as vacant.

Early explanations of the alleged undercount are murky at best. There is no single smoking gun to clearly explain the cause of the low numbers.

For all the training that the Census Bureau provided to establish a nationwide protocol for handling problems, many challenges prompted census workers to use their own discretion on the job out in the field. This is one of the foremost reasons that the census hires locals — neighbors know their neighborhoods.Read more…

Chart by Nicholas RizziClick on the chart above to view the 2000 and 2010 census counts on the neighborhood’s racial makeup.

As The Local examines the 2010 Census data, we have noticed a significant increase in the Asian population of some areas of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

While Asians still make up only a small percentage of the area’s population, the number of Asian residents increased by 81 percent, from 1,061 to 1,919, this past decade in Fort Greene. Clinton Hill, which now hosts 1,166 Asian residents compared to the 836 tallied in 2000, saw a 40 percent increase.

Brooklyn-wide, the Asian population saw a 41 percent increase from 2000. Asian populations expanded in all of New York City by 32 percent and in the nation by 43 percent.

We were curious about the reasons for the local increase. On several visits into the neighborhoods that have seen the largest increases, our reporters heard from business owners and residents.Read more…

The 2010 census count shows that Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s black population has declined by a third since 2000.

The black population in the 18 census tracts that make up the geographic boundaries of those neighborhoods dropped by 31.4 percent. In 2000, blacks made up 65 percent of the population, with 34,570 people. Now, they make up 47 percent, with 23,713 residents. This decrease is much more extreme than the overall black population decline in Brooklyn of 4 percent. And citywide, the black population decreased by 2 percent.

New York City’s population grew by 2 percent in the last decade, according to the 2010 census, but Fort Greene and Clinton Hill lost 4 percent of its residents. The population was 50,431 residents in 2010, down from 52,600 in 2000.

Chart by Nicholas RizziClick on the chart above to view the 2000 and 2010 census counts on the neighborhood’s racial makeup.

We spoke with Andrew Beveridge, chairman of the sociology department at Queens College and the brains behind the demographic information portal Social Explorer, to get his take on the area’s shrinking black population.Read more…

Social ExplorerA map of the population growth in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, according to the 2010 US Census report, by Social Explorer.

Here at The Local we’ve been digging into the numbers from the 2010 U.S. Census report and using some pretty cool tools to look at the data that has been released. We don’t want to keep all the fun to ourselves — here are a few ways to track the changes in the neighborhood over the past decade.

If while moving around or zooming in and out of the map you get lost (which happens more times than you might anticipate), you can click on the “Find” button and enter an address or point of interest in the neighborhood to get back to familiar territory.

Today the U.S. Census Bureau released it’s first chunk of the 2010 census data for New York, and several local elected officials are already crying foul. Although the city’s population count of more than 8,175,133 is a record high for a 10-year census, they say it underestimates the city’s growth.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told the New York Times that it was “inconceivable” that Queens has barely grown since 2000 and he suggested that immigrants, in particular, did not make it into the census.

Borough President Marty Markowitz chimed in too, to say that the 1.6 percent increase that the Census found in Brooklyn’s population is too small, and that Central Brooklyn’s residents and South Brooklyn’s Asian population were undercounted.

“The good news is that this is the largest Brooklyn population since 1970,” Mr. Markowitz said in a press release. “Even so, I am flabbergasted that the Census Bureau has made such a big mistake in tremendously undercounting our borough. It is inconceivable that Brooklyn—the hottest borough in which to live, work and play—grew only a small percentage in the past decade.”

Like the rest of the city, Brooklyn saw a decrease in black residents and an increase in Hispanic residents. Brooklyn also saw an increase in white residents.

We’re working on parsing the data, focusing in on our own neighborhood’s demographics, and putting faces to some of these numbers. But for now we have put together a chart that shows the raw numbers on race in Brooklyn from the 2010 census, compared to the tally in 2000. Underneath that, you can see the data for yourself on two pie charts.

Now that the numbers are out, what do you make of them? Do these numbers reflect what you see around you? What are the demographic trends you’d like us to look into? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments.

Daniel DoyleAll census field workers must be armed with an address binder, badge, and pencil before they hit the street for the day.

Local contributor Daniel Doyle has been working as a crew leader for the 2010 Census for the past month, knocking on doors in Clinton Hill. He and his team are winding down their operation in the neighborhood and starting to focus on other parts of Brooklyn.

For the past four weeks, census workers have swarmed the neighborhood, rapping on doors at addresses with unreturned questionnaires, for what I like to call the “door kicking” operation (Non Response Follow-Up operation, in office speak). I’ve had the good fortune of leading a team of 14 of these enumerators, who were assigned to Clinton Hill because it’s also their home turf.

It’s been a privilege to lead my team. Everyone was hired based on their exam score and the amount of work available near their home address. Awaiting my roster, I was very curious about who would make up the team. I never imagined it would be such a patchwork quilt of people. Sitting alongside me at one meeting was a former Navy diver, a mother of eleven, a real estate broker, a baby-faced college student, and a woman who bakes homemade pies and cakes for sale. The row of faces to my left included a retired teacher, a wedding officiant, a doctoral candidate, and a lady who stylizes bicycle helmets by stitching straw hats to their tops.

Teaming up with so many personalities has been the most rewarding part of the job, to say nothing of the chance to work outdoors in some of the best weather of the year. Even though a couple team members clashed personality-wise, most complement each other. Most of us would have never met under other circumstances. The Mr. RogersSesame Street jingle, “Who are the People in Your Neighborhood,” now has deeper meaning for us.Read more…

Roisin Wisneski — Community Photo EditorLast-minute filers can use free computers at the BPL at Pacific and 4th Ave.

In case you had somehow forgotten, it’s tax day. If you need a pick-me-up while you stand in line to mail your return off, my intrepid and somewhat zany accountant will be singing and playing guitar at the James Farley Post Office on 8th Avenue and 33rd Street in Manhattan today. He does this every year to take the edge off for last-minute filers.

If you’re planning on powering through your tax forms today, the Brooklyn Public library has tax advice online and the branch at Pacific and 4th Avenue is open from 1 to 6 p.m. for free computer access. The Central Library at Grand Army Plaza is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today. If you have an especially interesting, funny or insane experience at the post office or the library trying to get your taxes done, snap a photo or send an email to bklocal@nytimes.com and we’ll post it.

In other deadline news, don’t make the Census workers hunt you down: Send in your census form. It’s also due today. Even though we completely understand tax procrastination — I chose bike riding over expense categorization for the past few weekends — we’re here to tell you that the census form is short and easy, and makes you feel all warm and participatory. Plus, there’s no chance you’ll have to write a check to the U.S. or New York State Treasury when you’re done.

The city Department of Transportation’s controversial Citi Bike bike-sharing program, which put 600 bike racks on the streets of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, has residents up in arms. But kiosks are not coming down, New York City Council Member Letitia James told more than 100 neighborhood residents at a raucous town hall meeting last night.

Get news about Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in our daily roundup, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s summer slate of youth-oriented programs and the third annual Art of Brooklyn Film Festival coming to St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill.

In today’s daily post, you’ll find news on the spring opening of the Fort Greene Artisan Market, a Pratt Institute student artwork display at a Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan and a new recording studio in the nabe.

In this crime report, locals told police that their belongings were stolen from cars and trucks, their homes were burglarized and their bank accounts were used in unauthorized ways. Also, disputes between significant others resulted in violence and robberies last week. The trend of robberies on the B38 bus continued last week, with another incident on May 4 marking the tenth such robbery in the precinct this year so far.

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